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Fighting Climate Change with Bus Rapid Transit

July 10, 2009, 11am PDT

Bogota, Colombia's bus rapid transit system is seen as a shining example of how buses can make up a good public transportation system in cities. It's also being looked at as a model for fighting climate change.

The New York Times looks at the system and it's clean-burning buses and discusses what other cities' transit systems (and officials) can learn.

"[S]leek, red vehicles full of commuters speed down the four center lanes of Avenida de las Américas. The long, segmented, low-emission buses are part of a novel public transportation system called bus rapid transit, or B.R.T. It is more like an above-ground subway than a collection of bus routes, with seven intersecting lines, enclosed stations that are entered through turnstiles with the swipe of a farecard and coaches that feel like trams inside. Versions of these systems are now being planned or built in dozens of developing cities around the world - Mexico City, Cape Town, Jakarta, Indonesia, and Ahmedabad, India, to name a few - providing a public transportation network that improves traffic flow and reduces smog at a fraction of the cost of building a subway.

But the rapid transit systems have another benefit: they may hold a key to combating climate change."

Comments

Comments

What a narrow view to take -

What a narrow view to take - after all what countries have the highest ratios of cars and drivers to to people?

Transit that is attractive and serves commuter and user needs enough to coax people out of cars in North America would have a huge impact on carbon emissions and climate change. Of course it would probably also take some sticks, but still.

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